Fuelling the future: Can ETS top 1,574 miles per gallon?

Kevin Mio, THE GAZETTE03.22.2014

Students from École de technologie supérieure, from the left, Vincent Lalancette-Chayer, Sébastien Lacasse, Scott Morin, Antoine Brochu, Marc-André Harvey François Fournier, Samuel Thomas and Jean-Simon Lévesque, at the school in Montreal with the EVO V. They will be taking part in the Shell EcoMarathon in April in Texas. They have been working for two years preparing their new vehicle, the EVO V, for the competition.

MONTREAL — Fuel efficiency is on everyone’s mind these days, but especially for a group of students from École de technologie supérieure, who have been working for years to get the most out of every millilitre of fuel in preparation for the 2014 edition of the Shell Eco-marathon Americas.

While most of us think of fuel in terms of litres, the 15 members of ÉTS’s Evolution Supermileage team know that every drop counts — especially when the fuel tank in their Evo V prototype vehicle is no bigger than a baby bottle and holds only 100 millilitres of gasoline.

After two years of work, planning and testing their car — sometimes in indoor parking garages around Montreal because of the city’s harsh winters and less-than-ideal roads — the team is hoping to best its record of 1,574 miles per gallon — or the equivalent of 669 kilometres on a single litre of fuel, said Marc-André Harvey, who will be participating in his third Eco-marathon.

“We are confident that this goal is achievable for this year because we have made so many improvements,” said the 23-year-old electrical engineering student. “We even took a year off from (the marathon) to really work on the new car.”

Last year, a team from Université Laval set a North American record of 3,587 miles per gallon — the equivalent of 1,525 km/L.

The event traces its roots to 1939 (when Shell employees made a friendly wager over who could travel furthest on the same amount of fuel), and challenges the brightest young minds from schools across North America to showcase their fuel-efficient designs each year in Houston, Tex. This year’s event takes place April 25-27.

Participants must complete 10 loops of a one-kilometre course in 22 minutes or less, with the winner using the least amount of fuel.

Sponsored by Shell, the event is a way for the oil company to look toward the future and how to improve energy use, says Xia Wu, who is campaign implementation adviser for Shell in Canada and oversees the Canadian participation in the international event.

Shell predicts the world’s population will reach 9 billion by 2050, Wu said.

“Energy demand, for all energy types, is actually going to double,” she said. “So given this and that our resources are finite with an eye to climate change, we need to find smarter ways to move about.”

With that innovation in mind, the team from ÉTS has focused on reducing the weight of its car for better efficiency, says Scott Morin, who is completing a master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

“We wanted to cut 15 pounds, which is about 12 per cent of the weight,” Morin said.

To do that, Morin oversaw the development and construction of the Evo V’s new carbon fibre monocoque, replacing an aluminum frame used in a previous model.

That represents a huge weight saving, and the carbon fibre is also stiffer, which helps efficiency, Morin said.

With weight a major factor, finding the smallest possible driver is key. Often, that means a woman. This year’s driver for ÉTS is team member Marie-Pier Lépine-Proulx, who is 5-foot-2.

“The weight of the driver is regulated at 50 kilograms” including clothing and helmet, said team member Vincent Lalancette-Chayer, 23. Marathon rules regulate driver weight, he added, so teams with lighter drivers must add extra weight to the car in order to level the playing field.

In all, 11 Canadian universities — with 12 teams in total thanks to the two entries from the University of British Columbia — will take part in the Shell Eco-Marathon this year, a record level of participation from our country. Among those participants are two more teams from Quebec: from Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke.

Another ÉTS team goal was to develop a more efficient engine, Morin said.

“Our biggest problem last year was that we didn’t have enough sensors on the engine. This year, we are going all out.”

In all, the 50 CC engine, which produces one horsepower, will have about 10 sensors.

As a reference, most lawn mower engines produce the same amount of power.

Key parameters the sensors will monitor are temperature, humidity, the amount of fuel, the timing of the fuel, the spark intensity and the timing of the spark (which ignited the fuel), Harvey said.

“It can be almost a 400- to 500-per-cent difference in performance when an engine is cold and when an engine is warm,” Harvey said.

The team’s race strategy is “Run, kill.”

“What we do is we start the car, we accelerate up to a certain speed, and then cut the engine,” Morin explained. “We then coast down to a certain speed, then we start the engine and accelerate again.

“That way, the engine is open as little as possible and because our vehicle is so efficient, we can coast for a while.”

Wu says the event also allows industry access to new minds and possibilities, and some former competitors have landed jobs with Shell.

“By fostering this innovation, I guess we have been able to spark young minds to think outside the box. And ultimately there is kind of a talent component.

“It is a way for us to demonstrate that we are not only gas stations or extracting the resources. We are really about innovating about how we extract and use the resources the smarter way.”

The countless hours team members have spent working on their car don’t count toward their degrees from ÉTS. But the students agree that what they get out of the experience is probably worth more than any class.

Despite his background in electrical engineering, Lalancette-Chayer says what he enjoys the most about the project is the chance to broaden his scope.

“For example, I am working on the engine and I have made composite (parts), so it’s good to work and learn new things and not just what you do normally,” he said.

Harvey said the experience also teaches team members about the business side of things, especially all-important financing and finding sponsors for the project.

“Managing everything from financing to how we work with each other and how we split tasks” is a big lesson, Harvey said. “It is really great because being engineers, as much as we would like to only do design all day, that probably is not going to happen.

“We will have to manage a couple of employees or a complete company. All of these skills that we develop here is definitely something we want to put on our resumé because that is not something you can learn in school.”

Each year, the team relies on $20,000 in cash from the school and sponsors, and an equal amount of material sponsorships to get the project rolling. Shell also provides participating Canadian schools with $5,000 each to help with costs.

Morin says materials are easier to come by than a cash handout.

“You approach a sponsor and say, ‘Hey, I am a mechanical engineering student, can I use your product to learn about it?’ He is going to give you anything you want,” he said. “They actually come to our school and help us out, saying ‘hey, maybe you should use this instead.’ ”

In the end, the team members do it for fun, Morin said.

“There really is no reason we should be doing this other than it’s fun. I think we all started with LEGO and this is just a natural progression.”

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